


Memories of Peru

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-21
Updated: 2013-10-21
Packaged: 2017-12-30 01:54:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1012634
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For once Jim knows more than Blair...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories of Peru

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Sentinel Thursday

"Jim... "

Jim glanced up from his book. "Yeah?"

Blair hesitated for a moment, then asked, "Jim, when you were with the Chopek, did you ever encounter army ants?"

Whatever Jim had been expecting, it certainly wasn't that. The loft was far from cold on this mid-summer evening, but even so, he shivered. "A few times," he said.

"Are they as dangerous as they're claimed to be?"

"Didn't you ever encounter any on any of the expeditions you were on?"

"No." Blair gave a wry grin. "We had a couple of entomology students on one expedition - they were over the moon about the species they were able to study and record, but terribly disappointed that they didn't see any army ants. The rest of us - from what we'd heard about them, we weren't sorry."

"Uh-huh. Why the question?"

Blair gestured vaguely towards the magazine he was reading. "Did you ever hear about someone being eaten by them?"

"There were stories," Jim said. "For example, one of the elders claimed that he knew someone whose cousin knew someone who had met someone whose wife's brother had seen someone eaten to a skeleton in minutes. The kids listened open-mouthed; the adults just smiled knowingly, because they had seen army ants on the move. They don't actually move that fast; it's slow-moving creatures like slugs or small ones like other insects that they can overwhelm that get eaten. For most creatures, it's easy enough to get away from them. Though nobody was about to challenge them - everyone moved out of the village one time a column of them marched through it; army ants pack a nasty bite."

"The Chopek didn't have a rite of manhood that involved boys being bitten by them?"

"No," Jim said. "Though come to think of it, Incacha did say something once about a tribe further downriver... But the Chopek rite of manhood involved killing a wild pig single-handed - usually everyone in the hunting party helped; it was safer."

Blair nodded. "It's always something painful or dangerous," he said. "I'm just glad we don't have anything like that. I know, wisdom and ability don't necessarily come with age - I've seen ten-year-olds here who have more sense and maturity, basically are more adult, that some of the twenty-year-old jocks at Rainier - though come to think of it, a ten month old baby is more mature than one or two of the jocks."

"The ones who think anthropology is an easy option?" Jim asked.

"Who expect to get a good passing grade because they're in the Team, even though they don't work for it. Then there are the lazy students who have rich fathers who expect Junior to get good grades because of the money they're giving to Rainier." There was a bitter cynicism in Blair's voice. "Yes, Jim, I'm getting very disillusioned with the academic life." 

Jim looked at him for a moment, then changed the subject back to the Chopek. "Life in one of those Amazon tribes isn't easy," he said. "The kids there have to grow up fast - "

"Yes, but I'm not thinking about them," Blair said. "I'm talking about here in America."

"A lot depends on their parents," Jim said slowly. "Some parents baby their kids, others expect their kids to learn how to be responsible practically from babyhood. I guess Naomi was like that with you, huh?"

"Yeah, from the time I was about five she always expected me to think, behave, like an adult," Blair replied. "'Course, it helped that where we travelled, I'd seen so many places where five-year-olds had their assigned chores and were proud to be given the responsibility. They weren't babies any longer.

"Most of them were far more mature than many so-called adults here." He sighed. "Doesn't mean that I think America should adopt a policy of having five-year-olds working; I'm all for letting them have a childhood before they face the metaphorical army ants or wild pigs of adult life...

"Incidentally - you say you know that army ants have a nasty bite?"

Jim made a face. "Yes."

"Experience?"

Jim nodded. "When they came through the village, I didn't realize what they were, what they could do, and ended up with a few of them climbing all over me. And yes, they bit. Not something I'd like to repeat."

Blair grinned. "Oh, well - at least in Cascade you only have to worry about the bad guys shooting at you; they don't come armed with vicious biting ants."

"True," Jim said. "On the other hand, ants don't commit pre-meditated crimes. You stay out of their way, they won't bother you."

"Isn't that true of some crime bosses?" Blair asked. "But it's your job to get in their way."

"Tell you what," Jim said. "Think it would be easier to go back to Peru and take on the army ants?"

Blair looked at him for a moment. "Nah," he said. "I'd rather take on opponents where I can count the actual number. I'll leave the army ants to the people who live beside them."


End file.
